Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiographic imaging system, a radiographic imaging device, a radiographic imaging device control method, and a program storage medium.
Related Art
Conventionally, as radiographic imaging devices that image a subject, those that perform radiographic imaging for the purpose of medical diagnosis, for example, have been known. The radiographic imaging device detects radiation that has been applied from a radiation application device and passed through the subject to thereby capture a radiographic image. The radiographic imaging device performs radiographic imaging by collecting and reading out electric charges (charges) generated in accordance with the applied radiation.
Technologies that perform imaging using plural radiographic imaging devices for the purpose of imaging a large subject such as a long subject, for example, have been known.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (JP-A) No. 2012-85794 describes a radiographic imaging system equipped with plural radiation detectors. JP-A No. 2011-72775 describes a radiographic imaging system in which the imaging plane is elongated by disposing plural electronic cassettes adjacent to one another.
A radiographic imaging device equipped with an application detection unit has been known, in which the application detection unit is equipped with sensor portions, which are configured by photoelectric conversion elements or the like that generate charges when radiation or light into which radiation has been converted is applied thereto, and switch elements, which read out the charges generated by the sensor portions. The application detection unit also detects that application of the radiation has been started (radiographic imaging has been started) based on the charges that have been read out from the switch elements.
In a case in which the radiographic imaging system is equipped with plural radiographic imaging devices, the entire imaging plane for imaging the subject becomes long, so there are cases in which the amount of radiation applied differs among the radiographic imaging devices. In such a case, there is a concern that even though the start of the application of the radiation has been detected in some of the radiographic imaging devices, the start of the application of the radiation is not detected in the other radiographic imaging devices.
For example, in a case of applying radiation near the center of an elongated imaging plane, the radiographic imaging device disposed near the center may detect the starts of the application of the radiation. However, the radiographic imaging devices arranged on the end sides may not detect the start of the application of the radiation, or that the timing when they detect the start of the application of the radiation may be later, because the amount of radiation applied thereto is smaller than the amount of radiation applied to the radiographic imaging device disposed near the center.
In such a case, the radiographic imaging device that has detected the start of the application of the radiation starts accumulating the charges. However, the radiographic imaging devices that have not yet detected the start of the application do not start accumulating the charges. For that reason, the imaging operations end up differing for each radiographic imaging device, and in terms of the radiographic imaging devices for imaging an elongated radiographic image overall, the imaging operations may no longer be uniform. In the technology described in JP-A No. 2012-85794, there is a concern that such a problem may arise in the case of detecting the start of the application of the radiation in each of the radiation detectors.
In the technology described in JP-A No. 2011-72775, since the start of the application of the radiation is not detected by the individual electronic cassettes, and control for accumulating the charges is performed by a separately disposed device, time is required until the charge accumulation operation is started.